IUSI Reform 2026: Homes Exempt, Commercial Property Rescaled (Decreto 18-2026)

On July 29, 2026, Guatemala’s Congress approved Decreto 18-2026, which sets IUSI — the annual property tax — to zero for homes. It passed with 120 votes in favour, reaching the floor through a privileged motion.

⚠️ It is not law yet. The decree still has to be sanctioned by the President and published in the Diario de Centro América before it takes effect. Until that happens, the rates below under Decreto 15-98 are still the ones you owe. If you stop paying on the strength of a headline, you accrue arrears.

This page tracks what actually changed, what did not, and the dates that decide it.

What changed

The scale still in force today

Decreto 15-98, Artículo 11 — “Tasas al valor”, verbatim from the statute:

Payable in four equal quarterly instalments (Artículo 21), due in April, July, October and January. You may prepay quarters in advance (Artículo 22).

The new commercial scale

A note on the “9 por millar” headlines. Some outlets reported the commercial rate as a flat 9 por millar. That is a simplification. The approved text sets three brackets — “De Q0 a Q500,000, 3 por millar. De Q500,000.01 a Q1,000,000, 6 por millar. De Q1,000,000.01 en adelante, 9 por millar” — printed verbatim by both the state news agency AGN and Prensa Libre. A small commercial property is not moving to 9 por millar.

Note the threshold shift: the old top bracket began at Q70,000 of registered value. The new commercial top bracket begins at Q1,000,000.

When it would actually take effect — the decree’s own calendar

The final approved text (published article-by-article by La Hora on July 31) carries its own staggered timeline in Artículo 5, and it changes the practical reading more than any headline did:

In other words: even if the President sanctioned and published it tomorrow, residential IUSI does not go to zero on publication day — it goes to zero 90 days later. With publication still pending as of August 1, the October quarterly instalment almost certainly falls due under Decreto 15-98 — one more reason not to stop paying on the strength of a headline.

The final version also includes, per the same report:

• Artículo 2 (of Decreto 18-2026): prohibits municipalities from conditioning the provision of basic services on the collection and payment of IUSI.
• Artículo 3: amends the Stamp Tax Law so that revenue from the tax on second and subsequent sales, exchanges and transfers of real estate goes to the municipalities — the partial compensation mechanism for the loss of residential IUSI (effective January 1, 2027, per the table above).
• Artículo 4: adds provisions to the income tax law on gains from the sale of real estate in national territory. The rates are not in the available coverage; we are not going to invent them.

Who this actually affects

Homeowners in Guatemala. If sanctioned, your annual IUSI goes to zero. The change is forward-looking; it says nothing about what you already owe.

Commercial property owners. Your rate is rescaled, not removed. Deputy David Illescas described the commercial change as moving “antes el cálculo estaba a 3 por millar y ahora será a 9 por millar” — accurate for the top bracket, which is where large holdings land.

Diaspora owners in the US. The practical risk here runs the other way from the good news. Unpaid IUSI tends to surface when you sell, transfer or inherit, because municipalities require a payment record. A reform that zeroes future liability does not clear a past balance. Keep paying until publication is confirmed, and keep receipts.

Everyone, on timing. The October and January instalments straddle the likely effective date. Nobody has published guidance on instalments already requisitioned.

The part nobody reported: which money the municipalities lose

Every outlet carried ANAM’s warning that the reform “would directly compromise the finances of the 277 municipalities,” and Deputy Julio Héctor Estrada’s caution that it “podría afectar los ingresos municipales.” None explained the mechanism. It is in Artículo 2 of the existing law, which decides who keeps IUSI revenue:

• Revenue from taxpayers at 2 por millar goes to the municipality in its entirety, as fondos propios — 100% municipal.
• Revenue collected by MINFIN at 6 or 9 por millar is split 25% to the State, 75% to the municipality, as fondos privativos.
• Municipalities must spend at least 70% of it on basic services and infrastructure.

So the lowest band is the only IUSI revenue municipalities keep in full. That band is defined by low registered value — which in practice skews residential. The reform removes residential IUSI entirely, which means municipalities lose their only fully-retained property-tax stream along with a share of the rest.

What we are not claiming: the old bands were defined by value, not use, so “residential” and “the 2-por-millar band” are not the same set of properties — a home registered above Q70,000 was paying 9 por millar and now pays nothing. Sizing the loss per municipality needs matrícula-fiscal data that is not public. We are not putting a percentage on it, and you should distrust anyone who does without showing that data.

How much money is actually at stake

National IUSI collection in 2025 was Q1,853.7 million across the 22 departments — and it is extraordinarily concentrated:

At the other end, Patzité, Quiché reported zero IUSI collection in 2025.

That concentration cuts both ways, and it is the honest read of this reform: a municipality that never collected meaningful IUSI loses little, while metropolitan municipalities that fund real services from it lose a lot. ANAM puts roughly 50 of the 277 municipalities in the heavily-dependent category, and lists what is exposed: contratación de maestros para escuelas, nursing staff in health centres, rubbish collection, drinking-water and drainage maintenance, and pavements. ANAM is not asking for a veto — it “insta a los legisladores a instalar, a la mayor brevedad posible, una mesa de trabajo.”

The Ministerio de Finanzas Públicas warned that eliminating taxes “disminuye temporal o permanentemente los recursos disponibles para financiar obras y servicios públicos” and that suspensions would hinder Guatemala’s push for investment-grade status. CGC director José Andrés Ardón called the proposal “un arma de doble filo”; Habibi Quiñónez Oliva (ICE) identified municipal finance as the “principal riesgo”.

Where this came from — and why April’s coverage said something different

This is Iniciativa 6709, introduced in April 2026 by the UNE, TODOS and CREO blocs. As drafted it proposed a flat 3% rate plus exemptions for first-time buyers, adults 60+, and owners with 20 consecutive years of payment. It was amended article by article during third debate, and the version that passed replaced the flat rate with the use-based 0 / 3 / 6 / 9 structure above. It modifies Artículo 11 of Decreto 15-98.

So if you read April’s reporting about a “3% IUSI”, that design did not survive. Note the unit trap while you are at it: 3 por millar is 0.3%, not 3% — a hundredfold difference, and easy to misread in Spanish-language coverage.

⚠️ Vote counts differ by stage and by outlet and we are not going to paper over it: 131 votes are reported for the approval of Iniciativa 6709, and both 120 votes (AGN) and 107 votes (La Hora, July 31 piece) for the final redaction that became Decreto 18-2026. Different figures appear in credible outlets describing the same July 29 session; none of them changes what the decree says.

Still unresolved

1. Sanction or veto, then the Diario de Centro América publication date. That date starts the Artículo 5 clocks (60/90 days) — as of August 1, 2026 it has not been published.
2. Whether the sanctioned text matches the final-redaction text.
3. Arrears, fines and interest. Unaddressed.
4. How “uso mixto” gets classified for a home with a shop downstairs.
5. Q4-2026 instalments: given the Artículo 5 calendar (IUSI changes 90 days after a publication that has not happened yet), the October instalment almost certainly falls due under Decreto 15-98. Official guidance: still none.

We will update this page as each resolves.

Sources

• Decreto 15-98, Ley del Impuesto Único Sobre Inmuebles — full statute (Artículos 2, 3, 11, 12, 21, 22), published by the Contraloría General de Cuentas (that mirror returns 403 to automated clients; a readable copy of the same statute is published by INAP).
• Agencia Guatemalteca de Noticias (AGN) — approval, decree number, vote count, commercial bracket scale, and the sanction/publication requirement.
• Prensa Libre — commercial bracket scale verbatim; ANAM’s warning on the 277 municipalities.
• Soy502 — residential/mixed-use wording; Illescas and Estrada quotes.
• La Hora — “hasta 9 por millar” framing; July 31 article-by-article final version (Artículo 5 effective dates, Artículo 2 prohibition, Artículo 3 stamp tax, Artículo 4 ISR, 107 votes on final redaction).
• Congreso de la República — initiative notices (note: the separate “exonerar el IUSI y eliminar sanciones” initiative is a different instrument). The Congreso notice pages (congreso.gob.gt/noticias_congreso/15758/2026/1 and /15610/2026/3) render only through a browser — they return an empty JavaScript shell to any automated client, checked 2026-09-01, so they are named here rather than linked as read.

Rates and status verified against the statute and the approved-text reporting on 2026-07-29. This is general information about a tax rule, not legal or tax advice — for your specific property, confirm with your municipality or a Guatemalan accountant.